“BRETHEN: It is beyond all doubt that the Supreme Being has placed man in a state of dependence and need of mutual support from his fellow man. Neither can the greatest monarch on earth exist without friendship and society. Therefore, the Supreme Being has implanted in our natures tender sympathies and most humane feeling towards our fellow creatures in distress, and all the happiness that human nature is capable of enjoying must flow and terminate in the love of God and our fellow creatures. So we, the members of this Order, do agree to assist each other, and conform to the following rules …”1

Charter, Ancient Order of Hibernians —
Filed with the Pennsylvania State Legislature, March 1871

1. Report of the Case of the Commonwealth vs. John Kehoe et al. … for an Aggravated Assault and Battery with Intent to kill Wm. M. Thomas, stenographically reported by R. A. West (Pottsville: Miners’ Journal Book and Job Rooms, 1876), 167.

John Kehoe, Schuylkill County delegate
Ancient Order of Hibernians
Executed December 18, 1878
Posthumously pardoned January 1979

Molly Maguires

Research suggests that the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and a hostile press used this pejorative term to persuade a credulous public that a gang of Irish outlaws—the so-called “Molly Maguires”—had banded together in the 1870s to terrorize the Pennsylvania coalfields. Read more »

Ancient Order of Hibernians

The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), an Irish Catholic benevolent society that remains in existence today. In the 1870s, the order had divisions throughout the United States, the British Isles, and Canada. Read more »

John Kehoe

John Kehoe was born on July 3, 1837, in Ireland’s County Wicklow. Kehoe’s father and mother, Joseph and Bridget, emigrated to the United States sometime between 1842 and 1844, before the widespread potato crop failure led to Ireland’s Great Hunger. They settled their family in Pennsylvania.. Read more »

Pennsylvania’s HiberniansTogether, we can honor their extraordinary history